Doris from the Artist Housing
This post is dedicated to my neighbor Doris Keogh, who was a delight to many and a NYC staple. She’ll be dearly missed. A real Bette with some amazing stories, and an equally amazing spirit. She always thought of our building as a gift, and she’d want me to help you find housing.
If you live in NYC long enough, and work in the arts, you find out about a beautiful thing called Artist Housing. A building in Hell’s Kitchen called “Manhattan Plaza” was originally supposed to be a new luxury high rise… but in 1970’s/80’s NYC, nobody with any kind of funds wanted to live off of Times Square. It wasn’t safe. This was pre-cleanup, pre-Disney Broadway theatre district. You can get a taste of the former grit from watching such films as “Taxi Driver,” or seeing the musical “The Life” which has a fantastic song about women’s bodies being nobody’s business but their own, sung by the ladies working 42nd St, and no, I don’t mean the musical “42nd St.” But I digress. Manhattan Plaza is still there, and as far as I know the largest artist housing building in the city. I have a few friends who call it home. There are other buildings around the city like this, or even sections within other buildings. I am lucky enough to live in one.
See, when you get the job, and have the job, and keep the job, you might be able to afford NYC’s astronomical rent prices. But when you are in between, and scraping by with a patchwork of survival jobs, it’s pretty tough! I know people who have lived on rice and beans to make their rent, or lived with far too many other people just to be ablet to stay and keep pursuing their dreams. So, when I saw six years ago that a new artist housing building was going up, not too far from where I needed to be, I pounced. Got my paperwork in, got on the waiting list, and then with monthly phone calls “just seeing if you needed anything from me” to my case specialist, and sending all my energy to my now home, after a year of waiting, I was in. My 519 sq ft studio, where I was the first to cook, walk barefoot, or take a bath in the unit, was finally ready and I was home. Recently, I moved units in the building, and now have DOORS!!!! I’ve never been so excited about something so simple.
Now the brilliant thing is that as a part of Sec 8/HUD, my rent doesn’t stay the same all the time, but goes by my income. After all is said and done, usually about 30%, which is what I would wish for anyone. When my income goes up, my rent is adjusted accordingly. When this pandemic hit, I was also able to adjust. Thank goodness!!! I know that I am super lucky, and I want to share the knowledge of how to get this luck with you. I do have to provide the management with what I’ve nicknamed the “financial colonoscopy” yearly, and they go over EVERYTHING, but it’s worth it to have housing security in a place and time where that is a rarity. Once you’re in, it is very hard to get thrown out. You basically have to be chain smoking inside, doing drugs, with the cops being called for violent fights multiple times, or not pay your calculated rent for many months to be evicted.
If you are an artist living in NYC, go to https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ and you can apply. The rules do change, but if you make the majority of your living from artistic work, and are under a certain income threshold (which is different for each building, and tiers within buildings) you should be good to go. You may have to wait for a place, but with so many people leaving NYC due to the pandemic, there may be more openings now than ever before. My building isn’t strictly artists, there are also seniors on fixed incomes, and some other categories of Sec 8/HUD. It makes for a pretty interesting blend of folks living here. (Even if you are not an artist, but you are under the income thresholds, you may be eligible for a non-artist unit.) You do need to be a resident of NYC as well.
I’ll close this ted talk by saying I wish everyone on earth had food and housing security, and if this information helps anyone get housing they can’t lose, I’ll be happy.
https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/
https://actorsfund.org/services-and-programs/housing
